Red Mist
by Khentimentu
Summary: A story following Katniss as she hallucinates about those she's lost. My first attempt so please comment!
1. Chapter 1

_**Red Mist**_

Katniss's head was about to explode. At least that's what it felt like. She was not aware of much trough the pounding headache and the burning fever that wracked her body. Faces floated in and out of the haze that was her vision, some may have actually been there. There were people like Prim and Rue, but most predominately, Gale.

He was everywhere. He smiled and he laughed and he said her name over and over. But then the vision changed. Gale faded from sight and the blurry haze he had floated in was replaced by a red mist that swirled and churned in a violent, destructive manner.

New faces appeared in this terrifying venue. They were the faces of those who had gone to places Katniss could not follow. Rue. Her father. Peeta. But unlike Gale, they were not laughing or smiling. No, they were dying. Over and over and over till Katniss felt she would die herself from the pure grief that suffused her. Over and over she watched their lives end in a brutal testament to the hardships inflicted upon the districts by the capitol. This is what it meant to be a citizen of Panem. And there was nothing she could do but watch… and suffer.

Rue's death was the easiest to watch. Katniss had been there. She knew what happened and how it happened. There was a script that the death followed. So she knew what to expect. Rue screamed, Katniss ran to her, saw the spear, and killed the boy. Simple. Familiar. Excruciating, but familiar.

Her father's on the other hand, had happened had happened deep in the mines of district twelve. Katniss didn't know exactly what had happened so her imagination filled in the blanks.

She stood behind her father in a cold, dank tunnel, his body coated in coal dust and drenched in sweat. He was unaware of his daughter as he walked down the mine shaft. This was where the story kept changing. This part always played the same but what followed was different in every repetition of the death. He screamed his lungs out as his body burned to a crisp from the natural gas his torch ignited. Cave fish stripped his bones of their flesh after the tunnel flooded. A coworker bashed his brains in. the air disappeared and he suffered silently in the ensuing vacuum. Ribs punctured lungs and heart as they were crushed inwards from the weight of a cave-in.

The ways a miner could die were as many as the stars, and Katniss watched every single one inflicted on her father. Just one would've broken and ordinary girl. But Katniss was stronger than that. She retained her sanity. For the time being.

After the last death had finished it ugly work, Katniss's vision dimmed till all was black and as if her eyes had been pulled from their sockets. Adversely, her ears were functioning extraordinarily. This might have been a blessing considering her blinded state. That is, if there had been anything pleasant to hear. There were no singing birds, nor gurgling streams. Nothing to warm Katniss's heart or bring a smile to her lips. No, there was only the sobbing.

It was a whimpering, desolate sound, the kind that can only be issued by the throat of a man who has had his spirit broken and his soul devoured. Even with as much suffering as she had seen, Katniss shuddered to think of what could break someone so completely. Nothing would please her more than to cover her ears and run as far from the sound as she could.

But then the man screamed.

The piercing cry echoed and reverberated as if it were reaching her from the other end of a long passage of tunnel. It punctured her heart and shattered her concentration. Katniss had heard many screams in the past year, this one should not affect her so much, but this one was different. It was familiar. It belonged to someone she knew. Someone she loved.

She immediately stood up and half crawled half stumbled half ran toward the owner of the scream. She was correct in the assumption that he was at the other end of a tunnel. Unfortunately, it was not a straight tunnel, and Katniss kept slamming into as she forged blindly onward. Twenty minutes of this chaotic run later and alight appeared ahead. The screaming had stopped and been replaced by the pitiful whimpering.

Katniss reached the end of the tunnel and found a small ball of flame suspended in front of an unimposing wooden door, from behind which issued all the pain she had heard. It was with trembling hands that she opened the door. The first thing she noticed was how bright and modern the room behind it was. The tunnel had been primitively hewn from stone and the door from simple wood, but the room was all steel and glass and plastic. It resembled a cross between an operating room and a tool shed. The differences being that none of the tools would be found in any shed in the districts of Panem.

The walls were covered in every possible device designed for causing pain. Everything from Iron Maidens to Cattle Prods. Bamboo Splinters to Electrodes that would literally suck the life out of you. Torture Racks, syringes filled with sinister liquids, maces, axes knives, needles, acid, radioactive material. The list went on and on. The only section of wall that was not covered in instruments of pain was the part that contained the operating room portion. Instead of on the floor where it should have been, the steel operating table hung on the wall. Strapped to it Crucifixion Style, was Peeta. His head hung loosely on shoulders that slumped, defeated. The horror he had endured were clearly evident on his body. His fingernails were missing. Blood leaked from the follicles where his hair had been pulled out. Pink foam dribbled from his mouth. Empty eye sockets gaped at Katniss. "I will submit" was carved into his head. His entire body was a lattice of scars and open wounds.

But the greatest horror was what they had done to his torso. Katniss couldn't see the outside of Peeta's chest. But she had an intimate view of the inside. Hi sternum had been split and his ribs broken so they opened like hinges and revealed Peeta's inner workings. The tubes entering his head seemed to be keeping Peeta alive so Katniss could see every beat of his heart as it sent blood to his mutilated body. All her experience in gore and pain and suffering couldn't prepare Katniss for this atrocity. So she did the natural thing. She screamed, fell over, and hurled.

Cowering on the floor soaked in her vomit and Peeta's blood, Katniss was only dimly aware of the door opening behind her. She was aware though, of the pinch of a needle entering her neck. Then… she was aware of nothing as the red mist again filled her vision.

When she woke she was in the same room, but this time, she hung on a table next to Peeta, immobilized.


	2. Chapter 2 Katniss's POV

**Red Mist Chapter Two (Katniss's POV)**

**P.S. Anything contained in the []'s are notes from the author, not a part of the story**

**Also, if you recognize the book being referenced in paragraphs 19 and 31 please PM me and let me know. :) **

"Hey babe, rough night?" Peeta's voice is like water falling off a mountain stream, filling my head and soothing the furious pounding that threatens to overwhelm me

"Oh like you wouldn't believe", I moan. Then I realize something. "Wait! How… How the… **HOW** **THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU ALIVE!?!?!?!?** Oh don't get me wrong! I'm beyond happy that you are but… wha… **WHAT THE HELL??? I CAN SEE YOUR HEART!!! YOU'RE SPLIT OPEN LIKE A PIECE OF OVER-RIPE FRUIT!!! HOW ARE YOU NOT DEAD????**" My quickened breath comes out ragged and shallow, the shock of it all is causing me to hyperventilate.

Peeta chuckles. "You would be amazed at the technology The Capitol has. It's beyond anything you could ever imagine. See these tubes?" He gestures to his head. "Guess what they're pumping into me."

I take a close look at the tubes. There are two sets of plastic tubes, each tube about a half an inch thick. One set carries a clear, bubbly fluid into him. The other whisks reddish, rotten looking gunk out of him. It's like no medical system I have ever seen.

"It looks almost like its replacing your blood with liqueur"

For whatever reason, Peeta finds this incredibly funny. The laughter starts high up in his throat. But it's not his laughter. It a cold emotionless laugh. Like some kind of soulless being is trying to impersonate my husband. Bad as it is, it only gets worse. The laughter deepens and goes from soulless to demented. The laughter is so strong that Peeta's entire body starts shuddering violently. And then, just as soon as it started, the laughter stops.

Peeta is left shuddering and moaning. His laughter has deteriorated into some sort of demonic seizure. His face is a contortion of pain and anger so intense I can hardly believe that it could ever belong to my beloved. And then it's gone. All those negative emotions are gone. His face is transformed to a look of pure bliss. His mouth opens and I expect him to resume talking to me but no, that's not at all what happens.

Instead of talking to me, reassuring me that he's ok, Peeta screams. It's a scream identical to what I'd been hearing out in the passage, except I was able to distinguish what he was saying. The scream wasn't just primal noise; there was a word in there.

**KATNISS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

He's yelling not in anger or pain, but rather in fear. Fear for me. Even in all his pain, he cares not for his safety, but for mine. Knowing that he cares this much about her would normally make a girl feel incredibly proud or elated or whatever else I'm supposed to be feeling right now. But I don't.

I feel like crap.

I am both ashamed and afraid. My shame comes from knowing that I don't deserve this wonderful boy that hangs beside me. Since that day way back in kindergarten, when we first met, he has been completely enamored with me, and I had never even noticed. He gave me bread when I was starving even though he knew he would be punished, he stared at me from afar waiting for me to notice him. And I never gave him a second glance. Even in the arena, amongst all the kissing and the cuddling while we were holed up in our little love cave, I was blind enough to believe it was all an act. And I hurt him most severely because of it. So I feel like I owe him. Like I need to repay him.

But I can't; the other half of me is deathly afraid. Peeta is obviously unstable. The Capitol broke something in his mind; something dangerous, that I don't think can be fixed. He is no longer the man I knew. He is a twisted, perverted _**[ not like that, you sickos ;) ]**_ copy of the man who loved me. I consider abandoning him at the first chance I get, and immediately feel a wall of shame envelope me. How could I think so cruel a thought, after all he's done? And even if I did have a heart of stone, what good would it do me? I'm not going anywhere. I mean look at me, I'm chained to a frickin' wall!

My thoughts continue along this line for a while when I realize Peeta has gone silent. Looking over I see that his breathing has returned to normal and his eyes are securely closed. Thinking he is asleep I'm thinking about doing the same when he suddenly speaks,

"I'm sorry you had to see that. Every now and then someone mixes up the vials and the wrong life is pumped into me."

My confusion must be stitched across my face because after taking a look at me he explains.

"The Capitol has made huge advances in science and anatomy since the dark ages. But they were worried that if The districts learned about these advances they would duplicate them and wage war against The Capitol. So they are only used with high security prisoners. Like these tubes here, they're pumping the very essence of other people's lives, their souls into me, and then removing my death."

Yup. I'm still pretty confused.

"Do you see that thing that looks like suction cups on wires?" I nod. "Well it can literally suck the life out of someone. The cups are applied to every square inch of their body, even their tongue, and when the machine is turned on, the life drains out of them. First they feel only pain, horrible, excruciating pain; their screams keep me up at night. But then, they soon realize that they're _ageing. _They age and age and age till all that's left is a dried out husk, and a vial full of pure life. Then this life-essence is injected into people like me, people The Capitol wants to torture without the relief of death to look forward to."

Disgusted as I am at these atrocities, I still have questions to ask, "And the reddish fluid is….?"

"Oh that's simple," he explains. "It's my death. Eventually, so much harm is inflicted on my body that the life-fluid is exhausted and converts to death-fluid. So a machine keeps the life-fluid flowing in and the death-fluid flowing out. The death-fluid will be cleansed, purified, concentrated, and sent to old citizens who wish to die peacefully."

Ok so I understand a bit more now… but not all. Like his mood changes. One minute he's a screaming lunatic, the next he's talking completely natural. I just don't get it!

"You're wondering why I went all crazy on you."

"How'd you know?"

"At the risk of sounding really cheesy, your eyes speak volumes."

I laugh a bit under my breath then turn to smile at him. "Yeah that was pretty saccharine, but in a good way."

"Glad to get a laugh out of you. But back to the subject at hand. The reason I went all crazy is because someone screwed up and I got a tainted vial. One of the ways the capitol tortures people is to make them watch as a loved one is injected with life-fluid taken from a prisoner who went insane. The affects are usually worse that what you just witnessed, but I've been exposed to this stuff before so I've acquired a bit of a tolerance for the stuff."

" Ah. Sooo…. Now what?"

"What do you mean? I thought you had a plan."

"Nope. I don't even know how I got here." I proceed to explain everything that had happened to me since I woke up, excluding only the part about Gale; I felt it would only hurt him.

Peeta starts to answer me but is interrupted by the sound of bolts being slid out of their housing. Looking for the source I notice another door tucked into the far corner of the room. As I look at it the hinges creak and it opens to reveal a rather pudgy albino. His pale hair is dirty and matted; I think I see some small insects in there. He must have suffered a leg injury at some point because he walks with a pronounced limp. He hobbles over to us and sticks his face first in my face, and then Peeta's.

"Alrighty then! We're going to have so much fun together," he giggles, "Now, who wants to die first?"


End file.
